KOLKATA: Exactly two years ago on August 7, 2021, Neeraj Chopra did what no other Indian had done before. He won an individual athletics Olympic gold in javelin throw in Tokyo with a throw of 87.58m.
While the feat was of course huge for him personally, what it did to the Indian athletics scene was beyond anyone’s imagination. It broke down an invisible wall and made Indian athletes believe in themselves.
Among them is Odisha’s javelin thrower Kishore Kumar Jena, who has qualified for the World Athletics Championships to be held from August 19-27.
“This whole thing started after Neeraj’s feat. ‘If he can do it, so can I’ is how every Indian athlete feels these days,” said Jena during an interaction with TOI on Monday.
“In 2017, I hit the mark of 72m. From then till 2021, my performance didn’t change much. However, in September 2021, I touched 76m for the first time,” he added.
Incidentally, it was just after Neeraj’s Olympic feat.
Then, at the javelin challenge in New Delhi in October, he won gold by touching 74m. It wasn’t his personal best but he caught everyone’s attention and it won him a place in the national camp and this is where he began training under coach Samarjeet Singh Malhi.
The coach worked with him tirelessly and introduced a number of changes. “Earlier, I used to run 14m before my throw, but I increased it to 22-23m. Also, I used to hold the javelin towards the front, but I shifted my grip towards the back. And then I worked on the angle too,” said the son of a farmer farther and homemaker mother.
All this had a huge impact on his performance as he kept improving and he threw a personal best of 78.05 at National Open Athletics Championships in Bengaluru in October 2022.
His rise didn’t stop as he bettered his mark again in the first event this year when he threw 78.93m at Indian Open Throws Competition in Bellary on March 1. 19 days later, he broke the 80m-mark when he threw 81.05m Indian Grand Prix in Trivandrum.
In the next three meets, he failed to go past the 80m mark but he didn’t lose any confidence and came back with a bang at National Inter-State Championships in June with a throw of 82.87m. He then delivered his best at Sri Lankan Championships when he threw 84.38m late last month to win the event and qualify for the Worlds. It is also the 11th best throw in the world this year and the second-best by an Indian.
But he isn’t aiming for the podium at the big stage right now where he will be joined by Neeraj and DP Manu. Rohit Yadav also made the cut but is unlikely to go since he underwent a surgery recently.
“I just want to achieve my personal best. I haven’t thought about any particular target. I had a foul throw of about 86m so I know I’m capable of making it even higher,” said the 27-year-old.
While his journey has been nothing short of extraordinary, it’s interesting to note that the boy from Kothasahi Village of Puri district had started off as a volleyball player.
“I used to play volleyball in the locality with my friends. Later I gave trial at sports hostel and even got through. However, because I didn’t have too much height, I didn’t improve. So when the sports hotel conducted athletics trials in 2015 at Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar, I tried my hand in javelin and was selected,” Jena said from Patiala where he is training at the moment.
Initially, he began training at Odisha Sports Hostel under Nilamadhab Deo. Later in 2018 he got a job in Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) and shifted to Bhopal where he trained under Jagbir Singh. A few months back he also trained at Odisha Reliance Foundation Athletics HPC in Bhubaneswar for a few weeks but it was coach Samarjeet who finally made him what he is today.
As for his family, they don’t know much about his achievements. His parents and six elder sisters are just happy to see him go abroad and perform. But they have always supported him and Jena is hopeful of making them really proud in the coming days.
